Katy, Eli & Nina Ponder the Always-Popular Back-To-School Q: How do I pack the perfect school lunch?!

Posted on September 13, 2023 by Shannon van Niekerk

Katy, Eli & Nina Ponder the Always-Popular Back-To-School Q: How do I pack the perfect school lunch?!

When September comes around, I still think about school lunches. Even though it’s been many years since I packed one for my two kids (who now have kids of their own!) all that time pondering the perfect lunch left a big impression on me!

Back then, I was a working mom with a fledgling business, trying to figure everything out, including how to pack a healthy lunch that Eli and Nina would actually eat. Talking to many parents these days, they’re asking the same questions I did, “What in the world can I pack that will not come back to me later today?” I can’t tell you how many times I opened my kids’ backpacks after school, and there were wrappers and other remnants of not-so-healthy foods in their lunchboxes. (THEY TRADED!!) Or the entire lunch I packed was untouched.

So, I figured I’d get my kids’ perspectives on their lunches growing up, now that they’re parents themselves. Eli, Nina, chime in, please!

FROM ELI:

When I was a kid, I was always the one with the “weird” lunch at school. Back in the ‘80s, no one had energy bars or organic food in their lunchbox. No one except me, my sister, and a couple of other “super-odd” kids with hippie parents (Love you, mom!). Here are just a few examples:

I’m pretty sure I had the first protein bar on planet Earth, the PowerBar, which was nearly inedible. It was solid as a rock and tasted like chalk.
I remember a product called a “Nectar Nugget” which was basically a knockoff Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. (This was before Justin’s existed, which everyone loves now.)
I had the first Pirate’s Booty, Snapple Iced Tea, and dozens of other “out there” products (for back then) that are completely mainstream today.

At lunch, a few kids wanted to trade with me, mostly out of curiosity because my food was different. So I was able to outsmart my mom who thought I was eating all-organic but was really trading for junk food (please don’t tell her). So if you thought I ONLY eat super healthy food, this proves I did eat some junk food back in my rebellious youth.

FROM NINA:

My childhood lunchbox was full of “strange” items that none of my friends recognized. My brother and I often joke about how kids would rarely trade lunches with us. Back then, there were no “healthy versions” of popular foods. Even though my mom told me repeatedly that fruit leathers were “the same as Fruit Roll-Ups” we all know they just didn’t quite hold a candle.

But that was then … this is now! As an adult and mom, I’m so grateful for the healthy food I was fed as a child. I’m also thankful that our store now sells hundreds of amazing products that my kids are actually excited to put in their lunchboxes—and share with their friends.

BACK TO KATY:

Thank you, kids, for your brutal honesty. Although, Nina, we’ll have to agree to disagree about fruit leathers! But seriously, it brings me so much joy to hear that you now appreciate the “weird and strange stuff” I put in your lunchboxes back then. This is why I started Healthy Living to begin with: to pass on this love of high-quality, good food to future generations.

So what’s the perfect school lunch? There’s no right answer because it’s unique to every family. And that’s what makes it “perfect.” It’s your special way of sending your kids off to school with a little bit of your own personality, your values, and, of course, tons of love!

LUNCHBOX SECTION